text:
2013 Chevrolet Tahoe
Chevrolet Tahoe offers good towing capabilities and can haul up to nine passengers or two passengers and a mountain of cargo or anything in between.
Inside, the first two rows offer legroom and head room comparable to most sedans but more shoulder and hip room because of Tahoe's six-and-a-half foot width. Fold the second row of seats and remove the third row and the Tahoe offers nearly 109 cubic feet of cargo space.
Towing capacity is up to 8,500 pounds. Based on a platform similar to the Suburban and Silverado models, the Tahoe makes a stable rig for pulling trailers.
With its rigid chassis, the Tahoe feels taut for its size, steering is precise and responsive, and the brakes are capable and smooth. The ride quality is generally smooth, even with the available 20-inch wheels. At highway speeds, we found the Tahoe quiet and comfortable.
Engine choices are a pair of 5.3-liter V8s that feature GM's Active Fuel Management to save gas; you can't even feel the switch between four and eight cylinders, which generally occurs with your foot off the gas or steady-state cruising. The major difference between the two engines is that one has a cast-iron block and the other an aluminum block; each delivers 320 horsepower, is matched with a 6-speed automatic transmission, and provides all the power and performance most customers will need. The engines are also E85-compatible, which means they will run on 85-percent ethanol fuel. EPA fuel economy ratings (on gasoline) are 15/21 mpg City/Highway.
The Tahoe Hybrid has a 6.0-liter V8 of 332 horsepower and a two-mode hybrid system, and works seamlessly. It offers drastically improved urban fuel economy and slightly more power compared to other models, but tows less, weighs more and costs more. The Hybrid model provides an answer for those who spend the week in city traffic but want to tow up to 6,200 pounds and bring the family on the weekend. EPA ratings for the Hybrid are 20/23 mpg City/Highway.
The available Autotrac four-wheel drive can be left engaged on dry pavement and includes low-range gearing. It comes in handy for rugged terrain and serious snow and ice, but it's also handy for yanking a boat up a slippery boat ramp or pulling a trailer out of a silty, sandy parking area, those momentary needs that can be so crucial.
Changes for 2013 are essentially limited to two new colors. The current-generation Tahoe was launched as a 2007 model.
Model Lineup
The 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe comes in LS, LT, LTZ, and Hybrid trim levels. All those are available with rear-wheel drive (2WD) or Autotrac four-wheel drive (4WD).
Tahoe LS ($40,405) and LS 4WD ($44,465) come with cloth upholstery; tri-zone manual climate control with rear controls; six-way power front bucket seats with console (a split front bench is available for a $250 credit); 60/40 split-folding second-row bench seat; 50/50 split-fold third row; tilt leather-wrapped steering wheel with radio controls; cruise control; Bluetooth; intermittent wipers front/rear; power locks, windows and heated mirrors; remote keyless entry; side assist steps; AM/FM/CD stereo with auxiliary input jack and USB port; XM satellite radio; automatic headlights; theft-deterrent system; luggage rack side and center rails; front recovery hooks (on 4WD); color-matched door handles; trailer hitch platform with seven-wire harness; six months of OnStar Directions and Connections service; and P265/70R17 tires on alloy wheels.
Tahoe LT ($45,555) and LT 4WD ($48,405) get leather; 9-speaker Bose sound system with rear headphone jacks and audio controls; fog lamps; heated front seats; heated outside mirrors; three-zone automatic climate control; adjustable pedals; park assist; automatic locking rear differential; and remote start. A Luxury package for LT ($1,575) adds auto-dimming inside and driver mirrors, power folding and heated exterior mirrors with turn signals and reverse-tilt, heated first- and second-row seats, HomeLink, and a power liftgate. Also available is the new HDD navigation ($2,500).
Tahoe LTZ ($54,260) and LTZ 4WD ($58,270) upgrade to 12-way power perforated leather front seats, heated and cooled; heated second-row bucket seats; driver memory system; Autoride suspension; power liftgate; power-folding heated reverse-tilt mirrors; auto-dimming inside and driver's side mirrors; chrome trim; Bose Centerpoint audio system; new HDD navigation; rear-view camera; XM NavTraffic; and 20-inch polished aluminum wheels with 275/55R20 tires. A heated steering wheel and Side Blind Zone alert are also new for 2012.
Tahoe Hybrid ($53,620) and Hybrid 4WD ($56,425) are equipped between the LT and LTZ. The Hybrid does not have roof rails, fog lamps, tow hooks, or a separate glass opening on the liftgate. Hybrid mechanicals are warranted for eight years or 100,000 miles. Hybrid models come with the HDD navigation/audio system with rearview camera, locking rear differential, and P265/65R18 low-rolling resistance tires on alloy wheels. The Hybrid uses a 6.0-liter V8 gas engine, rated at 332 horsepower and 367 pound-feet of torque, and an electric drive system contained within the transmission.
Options include polished aluminum 20-inch wheels ($1,795); audio system upgrades; moonroof ($995); retractable side steps ($1,095); trailer brake controller ($200); rear-seat DVD entertainment ($1,395); second-row bucket seats ($590); skid plate package ($150); and engine block heater ($75). Tahoes that come with second-row buckets can be ordered with a 60/40 second-row bench at no charge, and larger wheels can often be downsized to standard 17-inch at no cost for bad roads, tire chains, and so on.
Safety features include dual-stage front airbags; seat-mounted side-impact airbags for driver and front-seat passenger; full-coverage head-protecting curtain side airbags with rollover sensors; four-wheel antilock brakes; StabiliTrak electronic stability control with rollover mitigation, trailer sway control and hill start assist; LATCH child safety seat anchors; OnStar; and a tire pressure monitor. Optional safety features include Side Blind Zone alert, rearview cameras, and rear park assist; all are useful and we recommend the cameras particularly to help the driver spot small children and other people when backing up. We also recommend wearing your seat belt.
The Chevrolet Tahoe features a crisp design with curved edges, fully wrapped front fascia that eliminates air-grabbing gaps, doors that wrap over the rocker panels, and a steeply raked windshield.
One result of the streamlined body is optimal fuel economy, according to GM. Automotive engineers judge wind-cheating aerodynamics by a factor known as the coefficient of drag: The lower the number, the easier air flows over it. The Tahoe has a Cd of 0.36. The Hybrid is even more slippery, with a Cd of 0.34. However, total drag also includes frontal area, and the Tahoe's substantial frontal profile means it isn't as low-drag as a smaller vehicle with a higher Cd.
Up front, the Tahoe features a clean interpretation of Chevrolet's two-tier front grille with a central bowtie logo. Tow hook openings flank the license plate frame and they are, on cars so equipped, flanked by fog lights. The sides of the Tahoe have little ornamentation, yielding a smooth design. Windows aren't shrunk in the name of style and offer a decent view; unlike the Suburban the rear side windows do not roll all the way down. And at the rear, the liftgate has separate opening glass to offer easier loading of small items and the bumper top is ribbed for safer roof loading.
The smooth appearance doesn't mean the Tahoe looks soft. Built on a wide frame, this is a commanding vehicle with a strong stance. A bulging hood enhances its visual strength. Further boosting the muscular look are standard 17-inch wheels, with 18s and 20s available.
The Tahoe LTZ can be distinguished by its standard chrome accents on the door handles and grille inserts.
The Hybrid model has several distinct characteristics. To offset the added weight of the hybrid system (the Hybrid Tahoe weighs about 250 pounds more than a standard Tahoe) and reduce drag, the front end features an aluminum hood and front bumper beam, a lowered air dam, and a slightly larger grille opening to offset the blocked off fog light and tow hook openings and smaller lower air inlets. Along the sides, the running boards are tapered front and rear for improved aerodynamics and the wheel flares are slightly reshaped. At the back, the rear side pillars, roof spoiler and center high-mounted stoplight have a unique shape, the tailgate is made of aluminum and has fixed glass, and LED tail lights. The wheels are more aero efficient and the tires have lower rolling resistance. The spare tire and jack have been replaced by a tire inflation kit. Hybrids also carry H logos with a printed-circuit board-like center. Thankfully, the substantial Hybrid wallpaper that ran along the doors of earlier models was stripped off in 2011.
Interior Features
The Chevy Tahoe instrument panel and center stack are cleanly designed and easy to use. The gauge cluster is attractive and informative, dominated by the large, easy-to-read tachometer and speedometer in black with blue-green numbers; the tachometer scale ends where redline would otherwise be marked. Oil pressure, voltage and water temperature gauges are standard, providing data many other vehicles leave to warning lights.
While largely plastic, the cabin materials are finished well and fit together with tight tolerances. With the available leather upholstery, the look is upscale; we find the lighter colors look more luxurious, the black very businesslike. Small items storage space is abundant, with a large center console, map pockets in the doors, a big glovebox and a handy tray below the center stack.
The Hybrid gets a modified instrument panel. The tachometer has an AutoStop position between 0 and 1000 rpm to show when the gasoline engine is off but the car is still on, the oil pressure gauge moves to the voltmeter position, and an Economy gauge goes top left. In theory this gauge is to give a quick-glance indication of how efficiently you're driving, but unlike the others that swing right to show more the Economy gauge swings right when you're using the most fuel, not getting the best economy. It also doesn't always agree with the screen.
Hybrids have navigation as standard, in part so you can use the screen (if desired) to watch power flow amongst the gas engine, battery pack and electric motors. When you lift off the gas to coast or slow the center screen shows the battery being charged but the Economy gauge stays planted in its default center position. Only when the brake pedal is pressed does the Economy gauge needle move left and the screen shows battery charge. The screen display could be distracting, so just keep the Economy gauge from swinging right and you'll be efficient.
The touch-screen navigation/audio systems work well and easily; we never had to consult the owner's manual to get what we wanted. If you're subscribed you get XM radio and real-time traffic data as well, and non-navi cars have options with OnStar. The switchgear is clearly labeled and arranged, the rotary light and drive switches both default to automatic, and the rear wiper switch is cleanly integrated onto the turn signal stalk.
The spacious interior of the Tahoe can be enjoyed from any of the three rows of seats. The driver sits up high with a good view of the road; steering wheel/seat/pedal/instrument placement is such that the eye is drawn to right of center. With tilt wheel, power seat (with manual backrest adjustment on some) and available adjustable pedals most drivers should find a proper, safe driving position. Roof pillars are narrower than on a Hummer but they are still substantial; taller drivers mentioned the top of the left windshield pillar and shorter drivers the pillar behind the right side door and the third-row seat which should be left folded when not occupied.
Front and second row leg and headroom is (for the most part) a couple of inches better than in Chevrolet's shorter-outside Malibu and Impala sedans, but it's the Tahoe's roughly ten inches more in hip and shoulder room that makes three-across in the second row a realistic proposition. It's worth noting that the Hybrid's lighter-weight front seats are also thinner; they don't feel any less comfortable than the standard seats but they add more than an inch to rear seat knee room and we'd like to see them standard everywhere.
A yank on the second-row seat lever (or push on the optional button) flips the seat up for access to the third row. We sat in the third-row seats and found that short-to-average adults fit, though they will likely feel insulted if kept back there more than 10 or 15 minutes. The Tahoe's rear suspension design means there is no foot well behind the second row; the seats sit on the cargo deck like very well upholstered beach chairs.
Like the second-row bench, the third-row seats have three seatbelts but no center headrests. They are split 50/50; the backrests fold down, the whole seat can be folded up against the second row, or they can be pulled back and lifted out. Unlike most of the competition big loads in the Tahoe require leaving the third row out of the truck somewhere.
With the third row out and second row folded Tahoe has full-size cargo space of 108.9 cubic feet, 60.3 cubic feet behind the second row and 16.9 cubic feet behind the third row. The load height is about the same height as a typical pickup bed.
Driving Impressions
The Chevy Tahoe rides quite well for a big, heavy utility and drives much less like a truck than you might expect. We won't say it drives like a car, at least any car designed this century because those have also advanced.
The Tahoe uses independent front suspension and five-link rear suspension with coil springs at both ends. There is noticeable body roll, some pitching on frost heaved interstates and nose-dive under heavy braking, but these characteristics are expected in a truck and do a good job of communicating how hard you're pushing it while maintaining stability. Multiple suspension tuning choices are offered, with a smooth ride setup standard on most, Autoride providing real-time damping and self-leveling rear on the LTZ, and the Z71 package for off-road use. The Z71 is firm and set up more toward speed over rough terrain than softness for ultimate articulation, and the Autoride proves useful on variable road surfaces or when towing; do remember automatic leveling on the truck is not a substitute for a proper weight-distributing hitch.
We prefer the smaller-diameter wheels over the 20-inch wheels. The ride was comfortable but not at all soft or spongy with the taller tires on the 17-inch wheels, and a truck with 20s got us along a winding road only slightly faster than 18s and that difference is easily attributed to the 20-inch tire being more performance oriented. The 20-inch wheels might look nice, but they come with tires with nearly three inches less sidewall area and thus provide much less cushion for absorbing bumps along the way. We recommend you try the 20s before you buy.
The Tahoe's steering is among the best in big, truck-based utilities, nicely weighted and void of free play and any wander. Three-ton trucks more than six feet tall don't change direction like cars and if you approach a corner too fast the Tahoe understeers and scrubs off speed; the predictability and consistency are ideal for the average Tahoe driver.
The 5.3-liter V8 and its 6-speed automatic are plenty for the Tahoe, and the 6-speed lets the engine use its four-cylinder mode to best advantage; it takes fuel to make power and move the Tahoe down the road, regardless of the number of cylinders being used.
The transmission will make the right gear decisions, and it has a tow-/haul mode for use pulling a substantial trailer. It also offers a manual mode via a shift button on the stalk but you must first move the lever to the M position. Engaging tow/haul mode changes the one-touch lane-change signal from three blinks to six, a useful feature.
Maximum tow capacity is listed at 8,500 pounds, but that's assuming you go alone in an empty truck. If you plan on bringing friends, gear and any trailer more than 6,500 pounds, we recommend checking into a Suburban.
It sounds oxymoronic but driving the Tahoe Hybrid is both different and the same. You don't do anything different to drive it, and the gas-electric drive system controls everything automatically. Turning the key always switches it on but doesn't always start the gas engine like you're used to; that happens more often at temperature extremes and ours more when we chose Reverse than when we went to Drive.
At very low speeds in the Hybrid propulsion is by electric power only, and you have to watch for people walking out in front of you in parking lots since there is only tire noise. The system will do 30 mph on electric power alone in ideal circumstances but in most cases the gas engine is on by 10 mph. The system usually shuts off the gas engine when the vehicle is stationary and the majority of the time your foot is on the accelerator pedal it is a combination of the gas engine and electric motors powering you.
If you step on the pedal hard as you might to get across a busy street there is a moment, some fraction of a second, before the gas engine starts and the system delivers its full 367 pound-feet of torque, so you should try that in the open a couple of times to know exactly how the truck will respond. There's enough power to get the Hybrid (and a 4,000-6,000 pound trailer) going easily, though it may sound odd at first as the gas engine goes to a certain rpm and stays there while the truck catches up with it.
The Hybrid system uses an Atkinson-cycle 6.0-liter V8 engine and dual electric motor/generators inside a transmission with four conventional gears because in certain high-load conditions those are the most efficient; the 300-volt battery pack is beneath the second-row seat so it uses no cargo space.
That battery pack is charged by the motor/generators when the gas engine runs and when you are moving with your foot off the pedal, such as descents and approaching stop signs. Energy that would normally be turned into heat by the brakes is used to recharge the battery pack which is why the Hybrid's fuel economy advantage is primarily in the city.
Although the nav-screen display shows the battery being charged when your foot is off the accelerator pedal, the Economy gauge does swing to the charge side until the brake pedal is pressed, and it doesn't go far right until the pedal is pressed hard. This makes the brake pedal a bit touchy in maneuvering and makes most drivers stop with more lurch because energy being recaptured for charging decreases with speed so the brakes have to take over. This is typical behavior of hybrids and practice will eventually smooth things but it's difficult to match a non-hybrid Tahoe for braking smoothness.
We found that manually downshifting to control speed on long descents did not appreciably increase the charge rate like we expected it to; gas engine compression helped but needing the brakes at all surprised us. The battery could have been at full charge (unlikely after the climb up the hill) but we never noticed battery charge level on the screen. We also found that if you got on the brakes hard there was a momentary delay before the needle-swing to heavy charge rate so the brakes would smell at the bottom of a tight, winding hill. In comparison, a standard gas-engine Tahoe where we could use the tap shifter and extra gears for ideal control didn't have smelly brakes at the bottom of the hill.
We don't think the standard Tahoe's 250-pound weight advantage over the Hybrid made the difference there, but it probably played some part in the Hybrid feeling a bit more ponderous than the standard Tahoe. The Hybrid's low rolling resistance tires didn't handle any less competently than other same-size all-purpose tires, although they feel like 20-inchers on some sharp, small impacts (like lane-divider dots) and we suspect they run higher pressure than the standard Tahoe. The Hybrid uses a 42-volt motor to drive the steering pump and while steering feel is as good as a regular Tahoe we like that this keeps up better in repeated maneuvering, like trail rides or backing a trailer, and that the Hybrid's engine compartment is very clean and uncluttered.
On level urban highways our 4WD Hybrid's trip computer showed 20.3 mpg; around town without any gridlock or jams, it showed 16.5; and in a mixed, relaxed drive it recorded 19.8 mpg (the gas pump and GPS backed up these numbers). When we drove a similarly-equipped non-hybrid 5.3-liter with the 6-speed automatic in the same places, conditions, speeds and times, it bettered the Hybrid on the highway at 21.2 mpg, did 13.3 around town and the mixed route at 17.7.
The Tahoe Hybrid is ideal for people who spend all week plodding around in a city but take the family and a 4,500-pound trailer out on a weekend. Without the city use the standard Tahoe will serve as well, and if you don't tow a trailer a minivan or larger crossover will have more room, drive more comfortably, offer the higher seating position, be just as safe, and get better mileage. Given our test results and the fact that the Hybrid has a slightly smaller fuel tank, long-distance cruising range might be better on a non-Hybrid.
The Chevrolet Tahoe offers cargo space, passenger accommodations, and towing capacity. It's a full-size truck and handles like one, offers the versatility of real low-range four-wheel drive, while delivering a good ride and a pleasant interior. The Hybrid model gets decent mileage in the city and the standard version is a better highway-cruiser value.
NewCarTestDrive.com correspondent G.R. Whale reported from Los Angeles, with Kirk Bell in Chicago, Larry Edsall in Phoenix.
|Model Line Overview
|Model lineup:
|Chevrolet Tahoe LS 2WD ($40,405), LS 4WD ($44,465); LT 2WD ($45,555), LT 4WD ($48,405); LTZ 2WD ($54,260), LTZ 4WD ($58,270); Hybrid 2WD ($53,620), Hybrid 4WD ($56,425)
|320-hp 5.3-liter V8; 332-hp 6.0-liter hybrid V8
|6-speed automatic; electrically variable transmission with four fixed gears
|Safety equipment (standard):
|dual-stage front airbags, front-seat side-impact airbags, full-coverage head-protecting curtain side airbags with rollover sensors; tire-pressure monitor, LATCH child safety seat anchors; four-wheel antilock brakes; traction control; electronic stability control with rollover mitigation, trailer sway control and hill start assist; OnStar
|Safety equipment (optional):
|rear park assist, rear-view camera, integrated trailer brake control, blind zone alert
|Basic warranty:
|3 years/36,000 miles
|Assembled in:
|Arlington, Texas
|Specifications As Tested
|Model tested (MSPR):
|Chevrolet Tahoe LT 4WD ($48,405)
|Standard equipment:
|leather upholstery (vinyl third row); three-zone climate control; power front bucket seats; front center console; split-folding second-row bench seat; tilt leather-wrapped steering wheel with radio controls; adjustable pedals; cruise control; intermittent wipers front/rear; power locks, mirrors and windows; remote keyless entry; heated outside mirrors; side assist steps; AM/FM/CD audio; XM satellite radio; Bluetooth; automatic headlights; theft-deterrent system; trailer hitch platform with seven-wire harness; six months of OnStar Directions and Connections service; fog lamps; P265/70R17 tires on alloy wheels; remote start
|Options as tested (MSPR):
|Sun, Entertainment & Destinations Package ($4,935) includes power sunroof, premium stereo with DVD player and DVD-based navigation, rear-seat entertainment system, additional 9 months of XM radio and NavTraffic service, interior auto-dimming rearview mirror, and rearview camera
|Destination charge:
|Gas guzzler tax:
|Price as tested (MSPR):
|four-wheel drive
|5.3-liter ohv V8
|Horsepower (lb.-ft @ rpm):
|320 @ 5400
|Torque (lb.-ft @ rpm):
|335 @ 4000
|6-speed automatic
|EPA fuel economy, city/hwy:
|15/21 mpg
|116.0 in.
|202.0/79.0/76.9 in.
|Track, f/r:
|68.2/67.0 in.
|Turning circle:
|39.0 ft.
|Seating Capacity:
|Head/hip/leg room, f:
|41.1/64.4/41.3 in.
|Head/hip/leg room, m:
|39.2/60.6/39.0 in.
|Head/hip/leg room, r:
|39.7/49.1/25.6 in.
|Cargo volume:
|108.9 cu. ft.
|Towing capacity:
|8200 Lbs.
|Suspension, f:
|independent, coil springs, antiroll bar
|Suspension, r:
|solid axle, five-link, coil springs, antiroll bar
|Ground clearance:
|9.0 in.
|Curb weigth:
|5567 lbs.
|Brakes, f/r:
|vented disc/vented disc with ABS
|Fuel capacity:
|26.0 gal.
|Unless otherwise indicated, specifications refer to test vehicle. All prices are manufacturer's suggested retail prices (MSPR) effective as of July 19, 2013.Prices do not include manufacturer's destination and delivery charges. N/A: Information not available or not applicable. Manufacturer Info Sources: 800-950-CHEV - www.chevrolet.com
Related Vehicles
You must be logged in to post a comment Login


text:
Stella Artois to debut Cidre in the U.S.
Stella Artois has announced that it will be introducing its new European-style cider in the U.S. this month.
Described as a "crisp, distinctive European-style cider made with apples hand-picked from wine growing regions," the cider will be available in four packs of 12-ounce bottles and 24-ounce single bottles.
"Stella Artios Cidre is designed to be savored and is very different from sweeter, domestic U.S. ciders," said Adam Oakley, vice president of import, craft and specialty brands at Anheuser-Busch. "Stella Artois cider has the potential to change people's perceptions of cider here, offering a refreshing alternative to white wine."
I'm a huge fan of ciders, and I notice now that the weather is warming up that I'm starting to think about them more often.
I'm not the biggest fan of Stella Artois, but I will give the Stella Artois Cidre a try. Although it has its work cut out for it – there are so many amazing ciders available made in New England and beyond that it'll have difficulty cutting into that market.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Heavy Equipment
Heavy equipment repair questions? Ask an Expert now.
Connect one-on-one with {0} who will answer your question
I would (and have) recommend your site to others I was quite satisfied with the quality of the information received, the professional with whom I interacted, and the quick response time. Thanks, and be sure that I'll be back whenever I need a question answered in a hurry.Elm City, NC
used your service this weekend with "Trecers" help. thank you ,thank you, thank you. replaced an A/C fan motor. Local Auto Zone had part. $15.00 "tracer" fee and $40.00 for parts, I saved several hundreds of dollers at a shop. i will recommend you and use you in the future.Richmond, TX
9 dollars, 2 hours of my time, and I drove away. Your diagnosis was right on the mark. Thank you so much.Marysville, CA
Lurch. Thank you very much. I had real doubts about this website but your promptness of response, quick followup and to the point answer with picture was incredible.Walnut Creek, CA
As a single woman, I really appreciate an excellent and affordable opinion.Charleston, WV
Thank you Geordie, I will not hesitate to contact justanswer in the future!
Another great insight to what may be the problem. I will have my mechanic take a look at it tomorrow. Thanks again, Frank...you do indeed know your stuff.Castleberry, FL
Wonderful service, prompt, efficient, and accurate. Couldn't have asked for more. I cannot thank you enough for your help.Freshfield, Liverpool, UK
< Previous | Next >
Chris (aka - Moose)
135 satisfied customers
24 years of experience diagnosing & repairing
338 satisfied customers
23 Years Heavy Equipment and Truck Repairs Shop and Field in the Minning and Construction Industry
Cat Man
Caterpillar Engine Expert
3,777 satisfied customers
23 Years Caterpillar Engine experience.
18,538 satisfied customers
34 years experiance as engine rebuild and problems.Thermo-King repair and trouble shooting.
Curtis B.
service manager
2,404 satisfied customers
30 years exp. with diesel engines, heavy equipment and forklifts, including lp forklifts
2,392 satisfied customers
16 Years working on Cummins Diesel engines,
553 satisfied customers
35 years experience journeyman mechanic transport truck and trailer including off road equipment
< Previous | Next >
Disclaimer: Information in questions, answers, and other posts on this site ("Posts") comes from individual users, not JustAnswer; JustAnswer is not responsible for Posts. Posts are for general information, are not intended to substitute for informed professional advice (medical, legal, veterinary, financial, etc.), or to establish a professional-client relationship. The site and services are provided "as is" with no warranty or representations by JustAnswer regarding the qualifications of Experts. To see what credentials have been verified by a third-party service, please click on the "Verified" symbol in some Experts' profiles. JustAnswer is not intended or designed for EMERGENCY questions which should be directed immediately by telephone or in-person to qualified professionals.


text:
Fountain Codes
September 4, 2012
Fountain codes provide an effective method of file transmission over lossy channels. Invented by Michael Luby in 1998, but not published unti 2002, they are used to send bit torrents and streaming media, transmit map and traffic data to in-car receivers, and probably for the recent "brain transplant" to the Curiosity rover on Mars (I'm speculating, but wouldn't you expect to lose a few packets between here and Mars?). The idea is to send many chunks of a file, larger than the original file, like a fountain spraying droplets of water, and for the receiver to collect drops in a bucket, which can be reassembled into the original file without collecting all the drops sprayed by the fountain.
The encoding process is simple. Pick a random number d between 1 and n, the number of blocks in the file. Pick d blocks from the file at random (no duplicates) and xor them together. Send the xor of the combined blocks, along with the list of blocks used to make the xor. The distribution of d is important; it is not just a uniform random number. We choose d with probability d / (1/2)n(n+1), so if the file has 20 blocks, the denominator is 210 (the sum of the integers from 1 to 20), the degree d is 1 with probability 20/210, 2 with probability 19/210, and so on, until it is 20 with probability 1/210.
The decoding process isn't much harder. Start with an array of blocks of length n, with an indication that each block is not currently decoded. Then each packet is analyzed as it is received. If the packet has a single block, it can be added immediately to the array of blocks; if not, any known blocks in the input list can be xor'ed into the packet, reducing its degree. A packet that is reduced to a single block is added to the output, others are added to a hold list. Any time a new block is discovered, the entire hold list is scanned for any further reductions in any of its packets.
Let's illustrate with a fountain that sends blocks of a single byte from the "Programming Praxis" input string. We begin with an empty array and hold list and fetch the first packet from the fountain (22 15 9). That packet has two blocks, so we put it in the hold and go on. The next packet is (80 0), so we put a "P" in block 0 and go on. The next packet is (55 12 10), which we add to the hold. Next we get a packet (14 10 8), which doesn't help immediately, but it shares a block with (55 12 10), which will be useful later; we add it to the hold, which now contains (22 15 9), (55 12 10) and (14 10 8). The next packet is (103 10). We can immediately add a "g" at block 10, then xor 55 with 103 to get the "P" at block 12 and xor 14 with 103 to get the "i" at block 8; our string is now "P…….i.g.P….." and our hold is now (22 15 9). We next receive packets (19 5 1), (88 11 15), (45 1 9 14 12), (105 16) and (114 1), so we can add an "i" at block 16, an "r" at block 1, and, by virtue of the (19 5 1) packet in the hold, an "a" at block 5; now the string is "Pr…a..i.g.P….." and the hold contains (22 15 9), (88 11 15), and (45 1 9 14 12). The next packet is (97 14), which gives us another block, the "a" of "Praxis," and also lets us reduce the packet (45 1 9 14 12) in the hold to (76 1 9 12). The next packet is (99 16 4 10 1 7), which we can reduce to (118 16 4 7) by applying blocks 10 and 1. Next we receive (120 15), which gives us the "x" in block 15 directly, and also gives us the "n" in block 9 and the space character in block 11 by applying block 15 to the (22 15 9) and (88 11 15) items in the hold; we now have "Pr…a..ing P..x.." and packets (76 1 9 12) and (118 16 4 7) in the hold, with nine blocks left to be decoded. And so the process continues. Eventually the entire string is revealed, on average after O(n loge n) packets have been received, which is about 52 for our 18-block string.
In practice, it is common to do things a little bit differently. Certainly it is normal to use blocks larger than a single byte. Instead of sending the list of blocks, it is normal to send the seed to a simple random number generator; if both ends of the transmission use the same random number generator, both can create the list of blocks from the same seed. And it is common to send a checksum with each packet; if the packet fails the checksum, it is simply ignored, as if it had never been received.
It is also common to use a different degree-distribution than the one we used here. It turns out that a bimodal degree-distribution with lots of 1-, 2- or 3-block packets, combined with an n-block packet and a few n-minus-two-or-three block packets, with very few packets in between, makes the whole process go much quicker, an average O(n) with just a small overhead of 5% or 10% over the size of the file being transmitted. Use of this degree-distribution is called a raptor code.
Your task is to write a program that creates a fountain and decoder. When you are finished, you are welcome to read or run a suggested solution, or to post your own solution or discuss the exercise in the comments below.
One Response to "Fountain Codes"
September 5, 2012 at 3:24 PM
A python version. I had a lot of fun with this exercise.
txt = "Programming Praxis Part rocks!" import random from operator import xor def get_boxes(d, n, prng): L = range(n) prng.shuffle(L) return sorted(L[:d]) def get_nr_packets(n, r): for i in xrange(n): r -= n - i if r < 0: return i + 1 def make_fountain(source): """ a generator function that emits the fountain """ prng = random.Random() n = len(source) yield n source = [ord(c) for c in source] den = n * (n + 1) / 2 r = prng.randint(0, 2 ** 32- 1) prng.seed(r) yield r # the random seed while 1: d = get_nr_packets(n, prng.randint(0, den-1)) boxes = get_boxes(d, n, prng) yield reduce(xor, [source[b] for b in boxes]) def decode_fountain(datagen): """ """ prng = random.Random() n = datagen.next() prng.seed(datagen.next()) den = n * (n + 1) / 2 park = {} solved = {} npackets = 0 for info in datagen: npackets += 1 d = get_nr_packets(n, prng.randint(0, den-1)) boxes = get_boxes(d, n, prng) s = set(boxes).intersection(solved.keys()) for si in s: boxes.remove(si) info ^= solved[si] tobeprocessed = [] if len(boxes) > 1: park[tuple(boxes)] = info elif len(boxes) == 1: tobeprocessed.append((boxes[0], info)) while tobeprocessed: box, info = tobeprocessed.pop() if box not in solved: solved[box] = info for b2, info2 in park.items(): if box in b2: del park[b2] b2 = list(b2) b2.remove(box) info2 ^= info if len(b2) == 1: tobeprocessed.append((b2[0], info2)) else: park[tuple(b2)] = info2 if len(solved) == n: L = solved.items() L.sort() #print "number of packets", npackets, n return "".join([chr(z) for i, z in L]) print decode_fountain(make_fountain(txt))


text:
To claim promotion codes on this site, all you need to do is to click on the store promotion link provided to open the merchant offer page and copy the coupon codes provided into your shopping cart to activate the discounts on the merchant page.
Some promotion link are provided without coupon code, just click on the promo code link to activate discounts. Most coupons are 10% off, 20% off, 30%,40% and 50% promotions respectively.
We have all these promotions covered, watch out for this promotional days to get a big discounts.
New Year's Day is on Sunday, Jan 1
Martin Luther King Day is on Monday, Jan 16
Valentine's Day promotions is on Tuesday, Feb 14
Presidents' Day promo is on Monday, Feb 20
St. Patrick's Day is on Saturday, March 17
Easter Sunday is on Sunday, April 8
Mother's Day promotional items is on Sunday, May 13
Memorial Day coupons is on Monday, May 28
Father's Day deals is on Sunday, Jun 17
Independence Day is on Monday, July 4
Labor Day is on Monday, Sep 5
Halloween promo deals is on Monday, Oct 31
Veterans Day sales is on Friday, Nov 11
Thanksgiving Day promotion is on Thursday, Nov 24
Black Friday is on Friday, Nov 25
Cyber Monday promotional item is on Monday, Nov 28
Green Monday offers is on Monday, Dec 12
Free Shipping Day is on Friday, Dec 16
Christmas Day is on Sunday, Dec 25
There are also special offers, money off , clearance sales, spring sales, summer clearance, winter deals, back to school. Just keep checking this site for the latest deals.
Coupons are properties of respective merchants and costs of coupons are assumed by merchants themselves.
They may discontinue promotions before the expiration date, or may not specify an expiration date as they offer coupons with a maximum redemption quota.
This site does not and can not guarantee that the deals and promotional codes on this pages will always work.
Promotional codes added by users may not be valid and as such we cannot guarantee such coupons or promos, but if you encounter a non-working coupon on this site send us an email to inform us so that we can remove such coupons.
We make reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy, correctness and reliability of this site's content and promotion code posted on this site, but we make no representations or warranties as to the accuracy, reliability, availability, completeness, or timeliness of any information on this site.
The use of this site and the information is at your own risk. The coupons and other materials on this site are provided for informational purposes only, and are not intended for any other use.
is one great shopping stop for all your shopping needs. The virtual store is very simple to use, but rich in content and generous with promotion codes. products are a bit more innovative and out of the ordinary than most other stores' in the industry. In short, the site is worth visiting for your special occasion needs or just for some fun video browsing and sharing, not to mention getting a great deal with the help of promotional codes.
First time users will not have any trouble finding their way around this online store. The categories and offers are very clearly positioned and grouped, everything looks clean and concise.
Consumers can use this retailer's limited applications totally free of charge. Such free account users have access to unlimited special occasion offers, but can use Everyday Fun category items and email links to the site's various items. While such options seem rather limited in other sites of the same category, they work for personal review of site products and information.
has offered plenty of opportunities of saving with promotional codes. It makes great financial sense to save usings coupons and special discounts like "buy one get one free", to get a good deal.


text:
Green Party
My senses sharpened, and I smelled the damp, pungent forest floor 20 feet below. The crimp bit into my fingertips with a fierce comfort, and I swung my feet out into space and then forward to high-step on the arete.
My senses sharpened, and I smelled the damp, pungent forest floor 20 feet below. The crimp bit into my fingertips with a fierce comfort, and I swung my feet out into space and then forward to high-step on the arete. I looked at the top of the boulder and there, framed against the green canopy of birch and sugar-maple leaves, was a small quartz crystal in just the right place. I carefully absorbed the texture, closed my grip and pulled myself onto the face. Two more moves, and I was lucky to stand on top of the most dramatic boulder problem in Vermont, Ground Up (V9). Lucky to have escaped uninjured. Lucky to return to the other projects on the majestic boulder and mostly lucky to be in the right place at the right time — right now — during the discovery and development of Vermont's best climbing.
The Appalachian mountain range stretches from Georgia to Maine and includes the Green Mountains of Vermont. Over eight million years, Vermont has seen glaciers come and go at least four times. These once-towering peaks have been ground and beaten, weathered, stretched and pulverized again and again to create today's rolling hills and gently sloped mountains.
In many ways, Vermont's culture is also a relic shaped by the past. People have a meaningful connection with the land, and many rely on it for more than just beauty and recreation. The forests and farmlands provide so much of people's basic needs that there is a collective sense that good stewardship will provide sustainability for future generations. Vermont embodies both a progressive attitude for change and a reverence for the tried-and-true ways. Montpelier is the only state capital with no McDonalds; there isn't a billboard to be seen on any of our roadways; and Vermont was the first state to allow civil unions for same-sex couples. Last March voters in two Vermont towns even approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest W and Cheney for crimes against our constitution. On the whole, life is a little slower, simpler and more liberal than elsewhere.
In the early 1990s, climbers assumed that there wasn't any rock left to develop in Vermont and, for real climbing, you had to go over to the White Mountains of New Hampshire or the Adirondacks of New York. This, however, couldn't have been further from the truth, and the past 10 or 12 years have seen the development of Vermont's best climbing. To this day, only a few climbers live here, and fewer still come here of their own free will. As such, Vermont climbers are currently enjoying our own private slow-motion Golden Age.
Given our hunger for rad climbing in our own backyards, Vermonters would have gladly developed it all in one gluttonous gulp, but that's not how it happened. There is a lot of choss here, and the quality rock is spread out and tucked away in forested nooks and crannies across the state. Most of the good stuff was damn hard to find. All of the best boulders and crags are isolated, and finding one never led to finding another. Each new discovery was like a gem, often kept in deep secrecy. Access issues have affected some of the crags, though the local access group, CRAG-VT, has been able to score major victories. Each year we think we've found the last of the great climbing, and each year Vermont gives up a few gems to keep us searching.
Smugglers' Notch is the magical, if dark and foreboding, epicenter of adventure climbing in Vermont. Tucked behind Mount Mansfield, the tallest mountain in the state, the Notch is a distinctly alpine venue of fast weather, exposed cliffs and dubious rock: a particularly frictionless green schist laced with drill-bit-breaking hard white quartzite. Yet if one has the perseverance to hike up steep loose flanks with neck-high nettles, and search with enough clear-hearted belief among the seas of choss, a unique phenomenon occurs, and the rock eventually evolves to an acceptable state of solidity, with only a dash of choss for tang. Given the vast amount of work involved, only a handful of these adventurous, ground-up multi-pitch climbs have been established. The crown jewel is Ganesh (5.11), a four-pitch route that follows the right arete of the Elephant's Head Buttress, the most striking rock formation in Vermont.
In 1971 John Bouchard solo aided the Elephant's Head South Face, which he described as being quite dicey, with hooks and thin pegs. Thirty years later, Travis Peckham and Paul Hansen established the free route Ganesh, ground up, breaking the 110-foot overhanging third pitch in half with a hanging belay to make a five-pitch route. The next year Travis brought me up there to try to eliminate the hanging stance. In keeping with the tradition of a good old-fashioned Yankee sandbagging, Travis told me the thing was 5.11. My first attempt saw me pump out and fly off after 80 feet, too thrashed even for another effort that day. On my second go, I was one move from a rest when a hold broke, sending me flying again. On my third attempt, the thing let me through — barely. Since then, numerous friends have pumped out, or been chased off by weather, or swatted off when a hold decided to give up. Not until just last autumn was Ganesh finally sent as four pitches for a second time, when Dave Vuono snuck through without breaking anything. "I had just pulled the last pump crux and gotten to a stance where I could hesitate before the last techy crux bulge," he says. "Then it started to drizzle, and I had to turn it on and punch it."
I have been telling my fellow New Englanders about this route for years, trying to get someone to onsight it, but no one has come. In my opinion, Ganesh hosts the most exposed, adventurous climbing of any route in New England, yet I know of only one out-of-stater who has been on it.
Smugglers' Notch also has the most concentrated bouldering in the state and offers better-quality rock than the cliffs. While there isn't a huge number of problems, some great circuits keep even the most frequent visitors coming back. Notch local Bill Patton moved to Vermont at just the right time. "When I first started going up to the Notch, the place was like the Wild West," he says. "While people had been climbing on the boulders for some time, pretty much all of the best hard lines just hadn't been envisioned yet, and I was coming from Salt Lake with a fresh eye for what was possible." Patton pretty much started the current bouldering revolution in the Notch and is still one of the most frequent visitors and by far the most psyched to show newcomers all his classic lines. New problems go up each year and recently the highest, hardest lines have finally been unlocked, including Patton's highball testpiece Red Cross (V10) and Tim Heagany's tall and serious Monarchy (V8), on the King Boulder. Balanced in the middle of the Notch's saddle, right at the apex of the Notch Road, sits the immense Red Cross Boulder. This past fall Patrick Tracy deciphered one of the most mythical lines with Truth and Lies (V11) on the boulder's steep east face. A fall from the upper crux would land you nearly 20 feet onto the road pavement and you'd risk a collision with a rubbernecking touron speeding around the blind corner. Truth and Lies represents the hardest piece of highball bouldering in Vermont.
The most drastic expansion in rock climbing during this Golden Age occurred around the town of Bolton in the hills just outside the state's big city of Burlington (population 35,000). Along the interstate through the Winooski River Valley southeast of Burlington, big cliff lines and crags separated by countless small outcroppings and boulders stretch for miles. There are easily four or five Rumneys' worth of rock hidden in little stashes throughout the forests of Bolton. Unfortunately, most of it is utterly useless for rock climbing. Still, Bolton holds Vermont's highest concentration of high-quality sport climbs and boulder problems, 95 percent of them established in the last 10 years. The best routes ascend gently overhanging faces with small roofs and bulges, and offer a perfect mix of sustained technical climbing with bouldery sequences on beautifully sculpted schist.
Every time we found new stone worth bolting, we had high hopes of opening Bolton's first 5.13, but the harder ones always ended up being 5.12. This past autumn, though, 20 years after 5.13 came to New England, Vermont's most popular climbing region finally got one, a beautiful route with a tip-splitting crux called Steppin' Razor (5.13a/b). While Vermont has had world-class climbing for some time, it wasn't until this past year that our little state got world-class difficulty. Marshfield Ledge is a unique and sensitive ecological area — home to a rare and endangered species of hay sedge, an almost extinct species of bee, and every climber's rowdy best friends, Peregrine falcons. Reminiscent of Whitehorse Ledge in New Hampshire, Marshfield is a granite slab almost a half-mile wide and 300 feet tall.
There's amazing slab climbing at Marshfield, but the crown jewel is the Highgrade Wall, front and center at the top of the cliff. Situated two pitches up on a large ledge overlooking the rolling hills and mountains of Groton State Forest, this 15-degree overhanging golden granite face is covered with crimps, edges and slopers at just the right angle and spacing to make one of the best 5.13a's anywhere, two amazing 5.14s, a few 5.13 linkups and a project of futuristic dopeness, all guarded by a don't go there without a local approach.
Drive a mile to the east of Marshfield to the up-and-coming bouldering area of Groton and you'll be greeted by granite that feels like Velcro-grip sandstone. This vein of granite extends north to Lake Willoughby, home to the baddest ice climbing in New England. Southwest of the lake lies Mount Wheeler, with its little chunk of splitter granite crack climbing. The best line, The Great Dihedral (5.10), was climbed more than half a century ago, then freed by Ed Webster in the 1970s. Since then, Randy Garcia and the Old Guard slab masters have put up over a hundred routes.
Vermont may not have as much great climbing as some other states, but I prefer it that way. When a precious substance is scarce, its value appreciates, and here in Vermont our rock is worth more than the market value. We have just the right ratio of motivated climbers to motivating rock climbs, and our state keeps doling out a few new routes each year. The climbing community is a tight-knit group of folks of all ages, without a pretentious person among them. The climbing is so spread out and hidden that crowded crags will never be an issue. There is no guidebook, and most people don't want one. While most climbers here are secretive at first, they will show others their new discoveries, and might show you, too, if you actually come up here and ask for a tour — that is, as long as you're not going to publicize it in Rock and Ice.
Burlington resident Peter Kamitses has been climbing in Vermont for 13 years.


text:
With the Washington Nationals preparing for their most highly-anticipated spring training since the team moved to DC, the oft-snakebitten franchise finds itself without a voice at DC's major newspapers.
The Washington Times today announced restructuring and layoffs that include drastic cut-backs in local news and sports reporting. The staff reductions of over 40% mean the Times is throwing in the towel on local print news to focus on national politics.
The announcement comes after Washington Post Nationals reporter Chico Harlan reported that he is leaving the Nationals beat as soon as the Post can find a replacement.
Of course, anybody paying attention saw it coming. Two seasons ago, when Harlan took over the Nats beat, he made it clear he wouldn't stay in the job more than a couple of years. As for the Times, even their most tenured sports reporters have been interviewing for jobs this year as they watched readership drop and were continually asked to do more for less.
Nats followers will surely miss Mark Zuckerman and Ben Goessling's Chatter, and the commentary of Thom Loverro, who last season so eloquently argued that the Nats must Let Teddy Win in order to escape the curse of Teddy Roosevelt.
But I'm going to miss Chico the most. Harlan won me over in his first weeks on the job, but the humor and eloquence with which he chronicled last year's train wreck of a season merits a plaque in the sportswriter's hall of fame.
As for the Nats, the sad reality is that come opening day, the Nationals Park press box will be home to just one full-time print journalist who has never covered the team.
Nationals president Stan Kasten has always had a love/hate relationship with bloggers, but his decision last season to embrace the Natosphere is looking mighty prescient. As print coverage continues to wither, a small army of loyal and dedicated Nationals bloggers continues to cover the team's every move. The team has followed up this off-season with conference calls and invitations to press conferences as the Nats announced their skipper and GM.
The Natosphere is remarkably strong for such a young franchise. For better or worse, it represents the most consistent local coverage of our favorite team. Kudos to the Nats for recognizing the growing role of blogs in local coverage.


text:
Ads out of closet, into mainstream with gay themes
NEW YORK (AP) — A new TV commercial features a good-looking young woman on a beach vacation lounging next to a good-looking young man. He bemoans the glare on his iPad and she fills him in on the Kindle Paperwhite's sun-friendly screen.
He clicks to buy one himself and suggests they celebrate with a drink.
"My husband's bringing me a drink right now," chirps she.
"So is mine," smiles he as they turn and wave at their male loved ones sitting together at a tiki bar.
Welcome to the latest in gay imagery in mainstream advertising, where LGBT people have been waiting for a larger helping of fairness, or at least something other than punchlines and cliches.
While there are still plenty of those, something has happened in advertising over the last two or three years, nearly two decades after Ikea broke ground in the U.S. with a TV spot featuring a gay couple shopping for a dining room table — a spot that ran only once in New York and Washington, D.C., and was pulled after bomb threats to Ikea stores.
Today, gay and lesbian parents and their kids are featured — along with pitchwoman Ellen DeGeneres — in J.C. Penney ads. Same-sex couples have their own, advertised wedding registries at Macy's and elsewhere and President Barack Obama offered his seal of approval by evolving into a supporter of gay marriage.
Two happy young men sit together eating at a dining table, with wine and romantic candlelight, in a section of a Crate & Barrel catalog marked "Us & Always." And we made it through a Super Bowl without any gay jokes at commercial breaks — like the Snickers ad of several years ago featuring two men freaking out after kissing by accident while eating one of the candy bars.
Traditionally lagging behind TV and film content in terms of LGBT inclusion, advertisers in this country are facing considerably less trouble than they used to when taking on gay themes, observers said. Penney's rebuffed critics and launched a lesbian-focused catalog ad for Mother's Day that the company followed with a two-dads family — a real family — for Father's Day.
DeGeneres, who married Portia de Rossi in 2008, continues as a CoverGirl in magazines. Also recently? A lesbian couple was treated to fireworks in a commercial — real ones flash on screen — for K-Y Intense, a personal lubricant that makes their moment or two more memorable. They're shown spent and satisfied in bed, hair tussled. "Good purchase," one says to the other.
Though Crate & Barrel declined comment for this story and Amazon didn't respond to email requests for the same about the Kindle ad, LGBT-focused marketers and monitors think the Mad Men and Women of today's Madison Avenue and the companies that employ them might finally be getting it. Now, they hope, a greater degree of diversity in skin tone and ethnicity will follow.
"They're no longer just targeting gay and lesbian people. They're targeting people like my mom, who want to know that a company embraces and accepts their gay and lesbian family members, friends and neighbors," said Rich Ferraro, a spokesman for the media watchdog group the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
Others, too, are celebrating the newfound bump in ad visibility, a mirror of cultural gains overall. It's a boost that comes as the U.S. Supreme Court takes up oral arguments later this month in key challenges that could lead to further recognition of same-sex marriage and spousal benefits.
Bob Witeck, who consults for Fortune 100 companies on LGBT marketing and communications strategies, put the buying power of U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults at $790 billion last year. He estimated, roughly, the U.S. LGBT adult population at 16 million, though others say their ranks could be as many as 25 million.
There's no demographic evidence or social science that points to the LGBT segment as notably higher earning or wealthier than anybody else, though they're often louder in protesting offensive ad messaging and loyal to brands and companies that support them.
"Things have changed significantly in terms of risk and reward," Witeck said. "Businesses don't view this as a risk model any longer."
Particularly, he said, when it comes to portraying marriage.
"Marriage, at one time, was the third rail," Witeck said. "That terrified companies. Most of this happened when the president said he supported marriage equality."
A consumer lust for "truth-telling" isn't lost on major advertisers, including those that once restricted themselves to trotting out gay-friendly fodder as one-offs when Pride Month and its multicolored flag flies freely each June. One recent pride standout in advertising, restricted to digital markets, is an Oreo cookie with a mountain of multicolored filling.
The company fielded queries from consumers who thought it was available for purchase in stores. It wasn't.
American Airlines, in 2010, ran outdoor advertising at bus stops and subway stations in New York showing two men on a beach with the slogan: "Here's to his and his beach towels.Proud to support the community that supports us."
Generally, Witeck said, putting a human face on gay couples and families in advertising is where much of the effort lands today.
"For the gay consumer and their families and friends, and lots and lots and lots of Americans, they expect to see those couples appear everywhere, but they don't want them trotted out with a pride flag," Witeck said. "Amazon didn't ballyhoo the message. They just landed it."
Mark Elderkin, CEO of the Gay Ad Network, which focuses on the LGBT niche market, said mainstream gay messaging has "passed the tipping point, where there's more to gain than there is to lose" for advertisers.
While there are groups of "vocal antagonists," he said more advertisers bolstered by broader media exposure for gay characters and storylines in non-ad content — "The New Normal," ''Modern Family," ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show," CNN's out-of-the-closet anchor Anderson Cooper — have explored non-traditional families and included LGBT imagery in "normal" settings.
"It seems to be moving quickly forward. It's companies that want to be more on the leading edge, more for the next generation of this country," Elderkin said. "It's not your parents' brand anymore. It's your brand and your kids' brand."
Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie


text:
澳洲幸运10开奖结果官方直播|澳洲10幸运官网视频开奖直播|168澳洲幸运10官网开奖号码直播 The WordPress Multilingual PluginWPML makes it easy to build multilingual sites and run them. It's powerful enough for corporate sites, yet simple for blogs.
Works on WordPress 4.7 – 6.0.1 – minimum requirements
With WPML you can translate pages, posts, custom types, taxonomy, menus and even the theme's texts.
Every theme or plugin that uses WordPress API runs multilingual with WPML.
We provide full support for WPML, helping you deliver perfect websites on time.
Compatible With Your Favorite Themes, Plugins and Page Builders
We work with other authors, to make sure that WPML works great with themes and plugins. To ensure ongoing compatibility, we run automated tests with many themes and plugins. We check that nothing breaks when they or us release updates.
New features | Tested
Old features | Tested
Compatible | Tested
Fast | Tested
Secure | Tested
All tests passed
Stable, Reliable and Secure
With almost a million sites using WPML, we take stability and security very seriously. We run full QA before any release. We test WPML on different WordPress versions and with different popular plugins and themes. When a new version arrives, you don't need to worry or stress.
Great for Multilingual SEO
WPML lets you fully optimize your site for SEO in multiple languages.
- You have full control over how URLs look.
- You can set SEO meta information for translations.
- Translations are linked together.
- Sitemaps include the correct pages and pass Google Webmasters validation.
With WPML, search engines understand your site's structure and drive the right traffic to the right languages.
168澳洲幸运10开奖官网授权-澳洲幸运10开奖结果168正规官网手机版|澳洲幸运10开奖号码结果查询 Satisfaction Guarantee
We believe so much that you'll like WPML that we're offering 30-days "no questions asked refunds". Buy WPML and use it on your site. If you're not completely satisfied, tell us and we'll refund your order.


text:
Migration complete. If you are an active member and having problems logging on, please send an email to [email protected]
Hello Guest,
VapingBlips.com is a social community of vapers gathering to discuss all things vaping and life in general. We have contests, play games, babble about nonsense and even share useful info about vape gear, e-liquids and DIY info.
We have no interest in spammers or trolls and our members have tools that allow them to remove offending posts if enough members rate it as spam or trolling.
We hope you like what you see and decide to register and join us.
If you have any questions, feel free to send an e-mail to [email protected] and we hope to see you soon ;)
External Redirect
You are about to leave Vaping Blips and visit a site we have no control over. Click the button below to continue to cricketkk41.blogspot.com.


text:
Suicide Blasts Near Iranian Embassy In Beirut Kill 23
BEIRUT — Twin suicide bombers detonated explosions outside the Iranian Embassy in a mainly Shiite district of the Lebanese capital on Tuesday, killing 23 people, including the Iranian cultural attaché, apparently in retaliation for the Lebanese group Hezbollah's support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The bombings appeared to be another strike in an intensifying proxy battle over Syria's civil war that is rattling its smaller neighbor Lebanon. An al-Qaida-linked Sunni extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying more would follow unless the Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah withdraws fighters that have helped Assad's military score key victories over Syrian rebels.
The midmorning blasts hit the upscale neighborhood of Janah, a Hezbollah stronghold, leaving bodies and pools of blood on the glass-strewn street amid burning cars. More than 140 people were wounded, officials said.
A Lebanese security official said the first suicide attacker was on a motorcycle that carried 4.4 pounds of explosives. He blew himself up at the large black main gate of the Iranian mission, damaging the three-story facility, the official said.
Less than two minutes later, a second suicide attacker driving a car rigged with 110 pounds of explosives struck about 10 yards away, the official said. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The bombing was one of the deadliest in a string of attacks that have targeted Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon in recent months in a campaign of retaliation by Sunni radicals over its backing of Assad in Syria's bloody conflict, now in its third year.
In recent weeks, Hezbollah fighters have backed Assad's troops in a series of victories over rebels, taking back a string of rebel-held towns in Syria. Shiite Iran is the main Mideast backer of Assad's government, believed to be providing it with key financing and weapons.
Senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Komati told reporters at the scene that the attacks were a direct result of the "successive defeats suffered by (extremists) in Syria."
Lebanon's sectarian divisions have been inflamed by the war next door. Lebanese Sunnis largely back the rebellion and Shiites largely support Assad — and the tensions have repeated flared into clashes and bloodshed in Lebanon.
Iran's Foreign Minister blamed Israel for the attacks. Hezbollah and Syrian officials indirectly blamed Saudi Arabia, the Sunni Arab kingdom that along with fellow Gulf nation Qatar has been a major backer of Syria's rebels.
"Each of the terrorist attacks that strike in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq reek of petrodollars," a Syrian government statement said, in a clear reference to oil-rich Gulf Arab countries.
An al-Qaida-linked group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attacks, saying they would continue until Hezbollah withdraws its forces from Syria.
The authenticity of the claim could not be independently verified, but it was posted on a militant website and on the Twitter account of Sirajuddin Zurayqat, a spokesman of the Azzam Brigades.
The group is active in southern Lebanon and has issued claims in the past for rocket attacks into northern Israel. It has also claimed a July 2010 bombing of a Japanese oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and a 2005 rocket attack that narrowly missed a U.S. amphibious assault ship docked at Jordan's Aqaba Red Sea resort.
At the scene of the blasts, blood was puddled on the ground, and debris and tree limbs torn off by the blasts were scattered over the streets. AP video showed firefighters extinguishing flames from burning vehicles, blood-spattered streets and bodies covered with sheets on the ground. A charred motorcycle stood outside the embassy gate.
A woman in a black robe and headscarf, unable to stand, clutched a man, pleading with security forces for help.
"Nader," she wailed, crying out a man's name. "Nader is missing." Another man ran from the area, carrying a South Asian migrant worker limp in his arms.
"People aren't sacred anymore. We aren't safe," said a mechanic whose store windows were shattered by the blasts. He declined to be identified because he did not want to be seen as involved in sectarian tensions that have split the Lebanese over Syria's conflict.
"People fight outside (Lebanon), but send their messages through Lebanon. With bombs. It's their SMS service," he added.
Lebanese Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said the twin explosions killed 23 people and wounded 146.
Iranian Ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi identified the dead diplomat as Sheik Ibrahim Ansari. Speaking to Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV from inside the embassy compound, he said Ansari took his post in Lebanon a month ago and was overseeing all regional cultural activities. Al-Manar reported that the street targeted by the suicide bombers includes a building where some of the Iranian diplomats and their families live.
The explosions occurred hours before Lebanon and Iran were supposed to play a World Cup qualifier football match. Lebanon's state-run news agency NNA said the match will be held later Tuesday but without spectators.
"We tell those who carried out the attack, you will not be able to break us," Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Mikdad told Al-Mayadeen TV. "We got the message and we know who sent it and we know how to retaliate."
Hezbollah's Al-Rasoul al-Azam hospital called on people to donate blood, saying they need all blood types.
Previous large-scale attacks targeting Hezbollah strongholds include an Aug. 15 car bombing in the southern Beirut suburbs that killed 27 people and wounded more than 300. A less powerful car bomb targeted the same area on July 9, wounding more than 50 people.
Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Zeina Karam in Beirut, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Albert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.


text:
Please register and log-in to see an overview of items you are bidding on.
Please register and log-in to see an overview of items you are bidding on.
To add more products to your cart you must first abandon your PayPal Express Checkout. You will be able to commence a new PayPal Express Checkout and re-verify when you are ready. Would you like to Abandon & Add to Cart (and abandon PayPal Express Checkout) or Checkout?
100% guarantee on authenticity
Hypnotic Poison by Christian Dior 100ml EDP Spray
Title: Hypnotic Poison by Christian Dior 100ml EDP Spray
Designer: Christian Dior
Description: Hypnotic Poison 100ml EDP Sp
Gender: Women
Type: EDP
Hypnotic Poison 100ml Edp Sp
GST Note: GST is included in the price of this item. GST is included in the freight.
Delivery time frames will depend on your location, please check the shipping calculator to see an estimate of when you can typically expect to receive your goods based on your postcode.
We will send you an email notifying you as soon as your items have left our warehouse. In this email, you will find the name of the courier company and the consignment note number of your item as well as information on tracking the delivery of your item online. Simply follow the link and enter your reference number. You will then be able to quickly and efficiently track the delivery status of your item!
Please Note: Your goods will be delivered to your registered address. We do deliver Australia wide except for a few remote territories, please check the shipping calculator to confirm delivery availability and timeframes.


text:
As promised last week, the Washington Nationals announced today that the first-ever rock concert at Nationals Park will be a blockbuster.
Bill Joel and Elton John will give a joint concert at Nationals Park on Saturday, July 11, at 7:30pm, as part of their Face to Face tour.
According to the Nationals, John and Joel "will open the concert together with a series of duets, playing twin pianos and trading vocals. Each artist will then perform a set with their own band. The grand finale reunites the two at center stage with their supporting musicians for a closing encore."
Tickets go on sale on Saturday, February 28 at 10 a.m. through Tickets.com.


text:
#Bitcoin-dev freenode - Bitcoin Chat
This is a small report about chat room #Bitcoin-dev, a so called IRC channel on network freenode. This report usually includes user statistics and chat topics of the last days and weeks, if the IRC channel was already registered and its administrators didn't set its channel modes to private or secret. You will also find an online chat button below that forwards you to irc2go.com.


text:
Through IP Login
Through Username & Password
IndiaWelfarestat.com is now providing facility to create various charts and India's map with state boundaries and created charts can be saved in .jpg, .pdf and .png file formats and maps in .png file format.
This facility is being offered to its registered subscribers only.
Existing Subscribers please login to proceed.
Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of "Terms of Use and Disclaimer"
Non-Subscriber, please check'Subscribe' for more details.


text:
In a report that comes as no surprise to many counterinsurgents, officials from the United Nations released a sharp rebuke of war-torn Somalia's government. In its report, the UN officials called the Somali security and federal transitional government "ineffective, disorganized and corrupt" despite international assistance, reports Law Enforcement Examiner.
"Despite infusions of foreign training and assistance, government security forces remain ineffective, disorganized and corrupt — a composite of independent militias loyal to senior government officials and military officers who profit from the business of war and resist their integration under a single command," the report reads.
"Efforts to restore peace and security to Somalia are critically undermined by a corrosive war economy that corrupts and enfeebles State institutions… Commanders and troops alike sell their arms and ammunition – sometimes even to their enemies. Revenues from Mogadishu port and airport are siphoned off. Some government ministers and members of parliament abuse their official privileges to engage in large-scale visa fraud, smuggling illegal migrants to Europe and other destinations, in exchange for hefty payments," states the UN report.
According to officials, the extensive report should be released in New York City this week so members of the UN Security Council may peruse the contents.
"During the course of the mandate, government forces mounted only one notable offensive and immediately fell back from all the positions they managed to seize," the report read. "The government owes its survival to the small African Union peace support operation, AMISOM, rather than to its own troops."
During the 1990s, a group of Saudi-educated, Wahhabi militants arrived in Somalia with the aim of creating an Islamic state in this dismal African country. Also, the renowned Al-Qaeda established an operations base and training camp. They would routinely attack and ambush UN peacekeepers. In addition, they used Somalia to export their brand of terrorism into neighboring Kenya.
Leading members of Al-Qaeda continue to operate, mostly in secrecy, in Somalia and have built up cooperation with some of the warlords who control food, water and medicine. And the people of Somalia starve, mourn and die.
Since 2003, Somalia has witnessed the growth of a brutal network of Jihad with strong ties to Al-Qaeda. In fact, when the US forces faced a bloody battle in 1995 during what became known as the Black Hawk Down incident, it was Al-Qaeda joining with a local warlord who killed and wounded US special operations soldiers.
Somalia has been without a functioning national government for 14 years, when they received their independence from Italy. The transitional parliament created in 2004, has failed to end the devastating anarchy. The impoverish people who live in the ruined capital of Mogadishu have witnessed Al-Qaeda operatives, jihadi extremists, Ethiopian security services and Western-backed counter-terrorism agents engaged in a bloody war that few support and even fewer understand.
In an incident that gained American press attention, Somali-based terrorists armed with rocket-propelled grenades launched an unsuccessful attack on Seaborn Spirit as it rounded the Horn of Africa with American, British and Australian tourists on board. For unexplained reasons, the attack is being treated as an isolated incident and the terrorism link is being all but ignored by journalists. The term "pirates" is routinely used with only a few reporters calling the attackers "terrorists."
The ship came under attack during the early morning hours when the heavily armed terrorists in two speedboats began firing upon the ship with grenade launchers and machine guns. They assailents were repelled by the ships crew who implemented their security measures which included setting off electronic simulators which created the illusion the ship was firing back at the terrorists.
According to passenger accounts of the attack, there were at least three rocket-propelled grenades or RPGs that hit the ship, one hit a passenger stateroom without inflicting injuries.
When a Somali Federal Government was established in 2004, it remained a government in exile since the capital of Mogadishu remains under the control of a coalition radical Islamists who've instituted Sharia law and a justice system known as the Islamic Courts Union.
In the winter of 2006, Al-Shabaab initiated a large-scale insurgency using the same tactics as al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah, complete with assassinations of government and military officials and suicide bombings targeting aid workers and transitional government officials.
In their report, UN officials blame the government for its failure to control Somalia and point to a lack of professional commanders, and a military that resembles an amateur militia rather than a professional Army.
The UN report points out that The Somali National Security Force was meant to have 8,000 soldiers fully trained and deployed. However, as of the beginning of the New Year, there are fewer than than 3,000 fully trained and equiped soldiers.
"One of the reasons the Islamic Courts Union and Al-Shabaab have both been somewhat popular is because people were sick of clan-based politics," according to the UN report.
Western governments fear that Somalia's instability may provide a safe haven for international terrorist groups. Al-Shabaab members have cited links with Al Qa'ida although the affiliation is believed to be minimal. The group has several thousand fighters divided into regional units which are thought to operate somewhat independently of one another.
The US has launched selected air attacks against Al-Shabaab leaders thought to have ties to Al Qa'ida, but analysts say this has only increased their support among Somalis.
The Western-backed Ethiopian military invaded Somalia in 2007, but many analysts believe this too augmented Al-Shabaab's military campaign against the transitional government. The Ethiopians withdrew in January of last year after over 16 months of Al-Shabaab attacks on its forces.
The transitional government is preparing a major military offensive to retake the capital Mogadishu from Al-Shabaab and various other militant groups in the coming weeks.
Report from the Christian Telegraph


text:
Based on the true story of a family swept away by the deadly 2004 tsunami that pummeled Southeast Asia, 'The Impossible' is about as subtle as a wall of water.
The depiction of the natural disaster itself, which killed 230,000 people, is visceral and horrifying. Director Juan Antonio Bayona has crafted an event that's impeccable from a production standpoint with its dizzying, seemingly endless sprawl of destruction, a relentless, wet menace full of things that snap and stab and strangle. And Naomi Watts gives a vivid, deeply committed performance as the wife and mother of three young boys who finds the strength to persevere despite desolation and debilitating injuries.
But man, is this thing heavy-handed. Although 'The Impossible' sucks you in at the start, it proceeds to pound you over the head after that.
Watts and Ewan McGregor co-star as Maria and Henry, a happily married British couple spending Christmas at a luxury resort in Thailand with their adorable sons, played by Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin and Oaklee Pendergast. (The real-life family whose story inspired the film was Spanish, like the director himself; changing their ethnicity and casting famous people to play them seems like a rather transparent attempt to appeal to a larger audience.)
During a quiet morning by the pool, the first massive wave comes ashore, scattering the family and thousands of strangers across the devastated landscape. 'The Impossible' tracks their efforts to survive, reconnect, find medical care and get the hell out of town. Maria and eldest son Lucas have managed to stick together, as have Henry and the youngest boys, Thomas and Simon. But neither group knows that the others are alive. The sense of loneliness and fear that sets in during those first quiet moments after the mayhem has settled are eerie.
Both halves of the family trudge on, though. The near-misses at an overcrowded hospital are just too agonizing to be true, and the uplifting score swells repeatedly in overpowering fashion, urging us to feel, as if we wouldn't know how on our own. Surely, the inherent drama of this story could have stood on its own two feet.
Bayona lingers almost fetishistically on Watts' wounds – the massive gash to the back of her right leg, the slashes beneath her left breast, the cuts over both eyes – then he martyrs her as she lingers near death. Meanwhile, the countless thousands of native people suffer in a blur – literally, they're fleeting images glimpsed from the back of a rumbling pickup truck on a dirt road. Either that or they're elderly, toothless saints spouting gibberish, but they never feel like real people who've just endured the devastation of the only home they've ever known.
'The Impossible,' rated PG-13 for intense, realistic disaster sequences, including disturbing injury images, and brief nudity, runs 107 minutes. Two stars out of four.


text:
Our beloved racing presidents continue to entrench themselves as fixtures in Washington, DC culture.
High culture, I might add…
Sunday brought thousands of people to downtown Washington for the first-ever Post Hunt — a live, brainteasing, scavenger hunt/puzzle founded and hosted by humor columnists Dave Barry and Gene Weingarten, and Washington Post Magazine editor Tom Shroder.
The contestants picked up clues which led them through downtown DC, and eventually to Washington Square, where they found puzzle #4 — a race being run repeatedly the Washington Nationals' racing presidents and a man in a deer costume.
As the race was run again and again, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place "in the money" finishers were repeatedly announced as the deer, followed by George Washington and Abe Lincoln. A sign "Presidents Race: A Time For Change" was an additional clue that participants were to consider the money values of the winners — the buck, followed by Washington (the quarter) and Lincoln (the penny).
The solution to this puzzle: $1.26.
Photo by flickr user afagen


text:
*Click here for Friday A.M. Quickie.
*Click here for NFL Week 7 Preview.
The worst World Series team ever: Is that really the Cardinals? That's a bold claim (made by, among others, Thomas Boswell), but you all know I'm a sucker for the superlative. And that would certainly qualify.
I'll leave it to the experts, analysts and historians to battle that out -- it bolsters the case that the Cards have the second-worst record ever for a World Series team (just a game ahead of the '73 Mets).
Though I was extremely sympathetic to the Mets' cause, there's something appealing about the fact that, less than a month ago, the Cards were on the brink of the worst miss-the-playoffs collapse in MLB history. And yet here they are.
The Cards' run confirms the playoff-success-as-random theory (most recently explained by a certain Cards fan-slash-sports blogger who must be plenty happy today).
How fitting that the signature moment of an NLCS won by the Cards is a did-you-see-that play by the OTHER team -- Endy Chavez's HR-saving catch over the wall.
Or that the second-biggest signature moment came from the light-hitting catcher, when Yadier Molina provided the winning margin in the top of the 9th.
Or that the NLCS MVP was an otherwise forgettable pitcher, Jeff Suppan, who went 7 IP allowing only 2 hits and 1 run -- his second straight clutch performance in an NLCS Game 7. Speaking of superlatives:
That arguably crowns him the NL's top big-game playoff pitcher of our era. Try to find a player who tops "won 2 NLCS Game 7s in 3 years."
(I'd say the only pitcher who could top him is Randy Johnson in 2001, but that was just for Unit's work in one series; Suppan did it in two different series over three years -- in the first, beating Roger Clemens and in the second, stifling his league's top offense.)
What about the Mets? As will be pointed out today, it was their offense that failed them, not their pitching, as originally predicted. (Shows what the "experts" know.)
Between the payroll and the talent, I have no doubt they'll be back in the playoffs a year from now – the NL East's equivalent of the metronomic Cardinals?
I'm sure the Mets' offseason focus will be on pitching -- whose won't? -- but it's worth noting that these final two games were anchored by lightly regarded cast-offs, not pricey imports.
Now, about that World Series: I'm not buying that the week off will slow the Tigers' momentum; as has been pointed out, the White Sox had five days off between last year's ALCS and the World Series.
As I point out below, this is a hugely intriguing series: The winner will either be a team completing the greatest turnaround in MLB history (Tigers) or a team that is arguably the worst champ in MLB history. (Cards) Either way, superlative-lovers rejoice!
Much like the Cards' fate in 2004, I predict another hard-fought 7-game NLCS title yields a World Series sweep to a Team of Destiny.
The Tigers have too much pitching, too much hitting, too much
Tigers in 4.
So, for the Comments section, a few suggested topics (though by all means, say whatever you want):
(1) Are these Cards the worst World Series team ever? If not, then who?
(2) Where does Suppan's performance and history put him among all-time NL clutch pitchers?
(3) What's your outlook for the World Series and why? Who are the biggest X-factors?
I'm traveling this morning, so I might not be able to post until later. See below for the usual Friday A.M. Quickie and the NFL Week 7 picks.


text:
Stockport County vs Salford City
Stockport County
Salford City
As part of the League Two, the teams Stockport County and Salford City will play a football match on 20/05/2023.
On AMZFutbol, every football fan will be able to see the football match results today, complete statistics of players and teams, and find out the schedule of future teams' games. You can follow Stockport County vs Salford City results today on this page.
It is available on many different platforms, including iPad, desktop, and mobile. AMZFootball will also give links to the today's streaming football matches that are accessible on the websites.
We strive to provide the most accurate and comprehensive broadcast information. However, broadcast schedules are subject to change at any time. If you find any information that is wrong or missing, kindly let us know.


text:
Home » Classic in Field » THE WORK: The 4th World
THE WORK: The 4th World
This would have been the band's last album, made two years after See. A live recording - arguably sounding better than the earlier studio recordings, doubtless in part thanks to Udi Koomran's post production work - it captures the energy and power of the band, and a genuinely unusual programme, recognisable as The Work but very different - more like a long experimental music theatre piece than a normal band concert. There's a lot of writing but only some of it is in straightforward song form. The texts are strange and strangely handled; I can't think of any other band who tried anything quite like this. A fifty-minute composition that passes through many stations.L.
Only available at this price as part of the ReR Sale Offer (minimum) 4 titles)
Code: AdHoc36
Price: £5.00


text:
As you tune in to your favorite TV shows tonight, we think it's only fair that YOU decide the night's best sound bite.
After you've watched your favorite shows, submit your choice sound bite in the comments section of this post. Will the bite come from Golden Boy, Smash, or Pretty Little Liars? Did someone say something hilarious on The Jeselnik Offensive, The Mindy Project, or New Girl? Let us know!
Leave a comment with your favorite quote of the evening and the name of the character who said it or vote for someone else's by hitting "Like" next to their submission.
We'll highlight the most-voted quote as our Bite of the Night tomorrow morning, and give due praise to the submitter. Don't be discouraged if your pick doesn't win – there's a whole new batch of TV tomorrow!
Read more:


text:
Zaira Martín-moldes
Clinical Science
TQ- Pharma
Has a vast expertise in the field of Clinical Research (Phase I, II, III and BABE study). In this role I have been performing various assignments from site selection to site close out. He worked in Phase III, Phase IV and BABE study with various reputed client company. I'm truly passionate about my work and always eager to accept new responsibility.
Research Interest
Pharmaceutics, Formulation


text:
The Linux kernel development process may welcome all those who love open source software and have the right coding chops, but one man remains the ultimate authority on what does and doesn't go into Linux—and he isn't afraid to let everyone know it.
The rants of Linux creator Linus Torvalds often become public through the Linux Kernel Mailing List archive. That's the open source way, and it gives us a glimpse into the thinking of the people behind one of the world's most widely used technologies.
The latest example comes from an argument between Torvalds and other Linux developers over whether the Linux kernel should include code that makes it easier to boot Linux on Windows PCs. This goes back to Microsoft requiring that PCs designed to run Windows 8 use UEFI firmware with the Secure Boot feature enabled. This has complicated the process of booting Linux on PCs that shipped with Windows 8, but it hasn't prevented people from doing so. There are workarounds, but some people are looking for a solution in the Linux kernel itself.
Last Thursday, Red Hat developer David Howells posed a request to Torvalds, which reads in part:
Hi Linus,
Can you pull this patchset please?
It provides a facility by which keys can be added dynamically to a kernel that is running in secure-boot mode. To permit a key to be loaded under such a condition, we require that the new key be signed by a key that we already have (and trust)—where keys that we "already have" could include those embedded in the kernel, those in the UEFI database and those in cryptographic hardware.
Now, "keyctl add" will already handle X.509 certificates that are so signed, but Microsoft's signing service will only sign runnable EFI PE binaries.
We could require that the user reboot into the BIOS, add the key, and then switch back, but under some circumstances we want to be able to do this whilst the kernel is running.
The way we have come up with to get around this is to embed an X.509 certificate containing the key in a section called ".keylist" in an EFI PE binary and then get the binary signed by Microsoft.
Warning: Graphic language ahead
Torvalds replied that the idea was "f*cking moronic." Ex-Red Hat and current Nebula developer Matthew Garrett noted in response that "There's only one signing authority, and they only sign PE binaries," referring to Microsoft signing Extensible Firmware Interface Portable Executable binaries.
Torvalds' response to Garrett was explicit:
Guys, this is not a dick-sucking contest.
If you want to parse PE binaries, go right ahead. If Red Hat wants to deep-throat Microsoft, that's *your* issue. That has nothing what-so-ever to do with the kernel I maintain. It's trivial for you guys to have a signing machine that parses the PE binary, verifies the signatures, and signs the resulting keys with your own key. You already wrote the code, for chrissake, it's in that f*cking pull request.
Why should *I* care? Why should the kernel care about some idiotic "we only sign PE binaries" stupidity? We support X.509, which is the standard for signing.
Do this in user land on a trusted machine. There is zero excuse for doing it in the kernel.
You might think that would end the conversation for good, but not quite. Howells pointed out problems in Torvalds' suggested approach, saying:
There's a problem with your idea.
(1) Microsoft's revocation certificates would be based on the hash of the PE binary, not the key.
(2) Re-signing would make the keys then dependent on our master key rather than directly on Microsoft's. Microsoft's revocation certificates[*] would then be useless.
(3) The only way Microsoft could then revoke the extra keys would be to revoke our *master* key.
[*] Assuming of course we add support for these.
Garrett noted that modifying the Linux kernel would be due to practicality more than anything. "Vendors want to ship keys that have been signed by a trusted party. Right now the only one that fits the bill is Microsoft, because apparently the only thing vendors love more than shitty firmware is following Microsoft specs," he wrote.
Greg Kroah-Hartman, maintainer of the Linux kernel's stable branch and the Linux driver project, put in his two cents, noting that various Linux distributions already allow Linux/Windows dual-boot scenarios due to "a UEFI bootloader/shim that Microsoft has signed." (That shim was created by Garrett.)
"I'm not saying that they are not nice things to have, personally, I want some of these things for my own machines just to make things more secure, but again, these are 'I want to have', not 'Someone else is saying Linux MUST have,'" Kroah-Hartman said.
Howells hasn't given up. In an e-mail yesterday, he noted that "Unless we get the administrator to add a key prior to Linux installation, Linux cannot be booted on a secure UEFI machine—unless the boot loader is signed by Microsoft's key." In the thread's latest e-mail from today, he responds to one of Kroah-Hartman's arguments.
The discussions illustrate how proposing changes to the Linux kernel can be controversial. We imagine these types of discussions happen all the time at software companies, but without becoming public like they do with Linux. What do the CEOs of major software companies say behind closed doors when they hate a proposal made by one of their underlings? We don't know, but when it happens with Linux, we do.
Torvalds isn't a CEO, but the final decision will likely come down to what he wants. Torvalds is an employee of the Linux Foundation, which allows him to remain independent while working full-time on maintaining Linux.
As the Foundation notes, "Torvalds remains the ultimate authority on what new code is incorporated into the standard Linux kernel."


text:
We are happy to help you via e-mail.Send us a message around the clock!
Please use our contact form for written inquiries.
» To the contact form
SPRINTIS Schenk GmbH & Co. KG
Ludwig-Weis-Str. 11
D-97082 Würzburg
Cover sheets A4 with leather board edge, with groove for SureBind binding system and binding combs
excl. shipping costs
PayPal payment possible
Ready for dispatch in 24h
Large quantities available immediately
SPRINTIS.eu uses cookies to make your shopping experience as comfortable as possible. By continuing to use our site you agree to using cookies.
We are delighted that you have chosen SPRINTIS!
Do you want to continue as a business customer or private customer?


text:
Save time and effort with the exclusive Genesis Intelligence App. Remotely start your Genesis, access your service and maintenance information, lock or unlock your vehicle from your smartphone, search for points of interest and send them to your vehicle, and even sync your calendar events for helpful reminders that can prompt you when it's time to leave. Download today. Click here for more information.
Android: click here to download
Apple iOS: click here to download


text:
Text copyright © 2000-2018 TOV Rose
For more information about the NMV, details about why the names of God are notated and translated as they are, or to learn about the special markings and translations used in this text, click below.
Follow the instructions and you will receive the free e-book by email.
Berean Study Bible © Bible Hub, 2020.


text:
|| eBook Readers | Electronic dictionaries | Translation software | Company | Partnership | Online dictionaries | Forum | Awards | News |
Should you need any personal assistance, please contact us filling out the online form
Ordering from our site is easy and secure.
If you are unable to access the page with the order form, please install SSL support on your browser.
We accept all major Credit Cards (Visa, MC, AmEx, Discover).
To ensure the security of your transactions, we are proud to partner with these programs:
The orders will be delivered to you by a courier service in 3-4 days.
Read this page in your language
LingvoSoft Talking PhraseBook English <-> French for Windows Mobile is the most convenient and functional phrasebook ever invented. Its ability to speak any of its 14,000 phrases aloud using digitally recorded native-speaker voice narration means that you will always be understood - even if you can't speak a word of another language.
Once installed on your PDA this handy resource provides instant bi-directional translation between English and French - saving you time, effort and embarrassment. Extraordinarily advanced, this invaluable application equips you to travel and learn without the bother of searching though page after page of information.
Thanks to its adjustable speech recognition capabilities you can easily access its conveniently arranged topic areas by simply speaking into the device. Requiring no previous knowledge of a second language, this remarkable travel companion contains the most useful and important phrases needed when vacationing or working another county and lets you visit a bank, check into a hotel, arrange transportation or shop in perfect comfort and style. And because the application is so compact, you can easily add new phasebook software for different language pairs depending on your destination.
The added bonus of the inclusion of our patented FlashCards learning games now allows you to master another language easier than ever before. With LingvoSoft PhraseBook for Windows Mobile you can say goodbye to misunderstandings forever - in any language.
Topic Areas
System requirements:
Pocket PC 2002
Pocket PC 2003
Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition (SE)
Windows Mobile Version 5.0
Windows Mobile Version 6.0
Windows Mobile Version 6.5 (English)
Memory: 6 MB for the main application (storage)
from 5 to 10 MB for the sound databases (storage)
TrueType font file for complex eastern languages takes from 3 to 5 MB (storage)
Additional from 5 to 10 MB needed for proper operation (program)
Discover what other devices and software applications are available for the languages you've selected.
Buy more - pay less
You can also purchase our software collections which have certain capabilities of the LingvoSoft Talking PhraseBook English <-> French for Windows Mobile. These packages incorporate the best applications which have been brought together for you to get the terrific savings, as these programs would cost substantially more if purchased separately.
French handheld dictionaries
|Top of page
|Company | Terms and Conditions | Free Online-Dictionaries | Discount Center | Forum | News | Support | Your Account | Home
|© Copyright 1990-2023 ECTACO, Inc. All rights reserved.
Ectaco Australia & New Zealand
Contact us
ECTACO Trademarks
United Kingdom |
Germany |
Poland |
Italy |
Russia |
Canada |
Spain |
Ukraine |
The Largest Collection of Free Online Translation Services
Free On-line Dictionaries
Free On-line PhraseBooks